Pembroke DPW makes proactive push

The Pembroke Department of Public Works (DPW) commissioners are killing two birds with one stone after being approved by selectmen to fund the storm water management plan with water department revenues.

The Pembroke Department of Public Works (DPW) commissioners are killing two birds with one stone after being approved by selectmen to fund the storm water management plan with water department revenues.

Even though the initiative was approved at Town Meeting, the project’s $340,000 price tag (plus interest) had selectmen recently shelving the expenditure.

DPW commissioners appeared before selectmen recently (Oct. 7) and requested moving forward with the project and funding it through water department revenues.

The plan is required under the state Department of Environmental Protection’s (EPA) Clean Water Act, and will not cost Pembroke taxpayers anything extra.

“We agreed as a board to be proactive,” said DPW Commission Chairman Ben Bastianelli.

The plan would establish a map of storm water runoff for the town and would divert the water to help recharge the drinking water used by town residents.

“Drinking water is and will become the fossil fuel of the future,” Bastianelli said. “It will get to that point in its demand.”

With the federal law looking for towns to better manage storm water runoff, the commissioners said they wanted to be proactive. Bastianelli said because other towns have been slow in the process, the price tag will only get higher by putting the project off to when other towns are doing the work as well.

“We’re at a point where the clock is ticking and if we wait, we won’t be able to do it [at this price] anymore,” he said.

The Clean Water Act is a mandate, so it is less of a question of whether to approve the expenditure, and more of a question of when to approve it. Bastianelli said putting the decision off isn’t a good idea.

“The window is closing on us,” he said. “I don’t want to be back here is a few years and say, ‘we’re really stuck’.”

Funding for the project would involve a $340,000 state grant through the Massachusetts Water Pollution Abatement Trust and administered by the EPA, which would need to be repaid over 20 years at an interest rate of 2-percent. Bastianelli said water revenues would be able to cover the payments, and taxpayers would see no increase.

“There isn’t any need to raise the water rates,” he said. “We have the ability to do it.”

Selectmen were on board with the idea and approved it unanimously.

“It makes a lot of sense to me for you to be proactive,” said Selectmen Chairman Bill Boulter.